1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing flat panel displays and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a structure to transfer substrates of the flat panel displays to respective processes and a method of transferring the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a flat panel display device is a display device designed to reduce big volume and heavy weight, and other disadvantages of a cathode ray tube. Flat panel display devices include liquid crystal displays, field emission displays, plasma display panels, and light emitting displays.
Of these liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel and a drive for applying a driving signal to the liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal panel includes a pair of substrates assembled to each other to maintain a predetermined space and a liquid crystal layer in the space between the substrates. Here, the respective substrates or the assembled substrate made by assembling the substrates are carried to or withdrawn from various processing sites by a carrier such as a robot arm.
FIG. 1 illustrates a layout of a related art apparatus for carrying substrates. In other words, the layout of the related art apparatus for carrying the substrates is structured such that substrates 1 in a cassette 10 stored in a stocker 20 are respectively carried to a stage 40. A robot arm 50 then loads and transfers the substrates 1 that are carried to the stage 40, to a processing device 60. At this time, the robot arm 50 has a hand 51 which rotates and moves forward and backward.
However, the layout of the related art apparatus for carrying substrates has disadvantages which are represented by large overall footprints due to the stage 40. Moreover, when withdrawing the substrates 1 from the cassette 10 and further transferring the substrates 1 to the processing device 60, the overall working time is long. This is because in the process of withdrawing the substrates 1 from the cassette 10, the hand 51 of the robot arm 50 is operated such that it enters from under the lower sides of the respective substrates 1 and also because the robot arm 50 withdraws and transfers the substrates 1 individually. Also, since the respective substrates 1 must be maintained by minimum gaps through which the hand 51 of the robot arm 50 sufficiently enters, the number of the substrates 1 accommodated in the cassette 10 is difficult to increase.